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Definitely the greatest of my “dislikes” was how much the senior staff seemed so eager to do my job as flight sergeant for me. A perfect example was when I was pushing my cadets through chow in order to make room for the many other flights behind us. When Lo and Behold, a senior member sitting down eating chow, told me, in front of my basics, “not to rush them. They’ll be done when they’re done.” I complied and backed off a little. About a minute or two later a flight Commander from a different flight came up to me and said “can you speed things up a bit? My flight is all through getting their trays and there isn’t a single seat left.” So I, rather aggressively, relayed the message back to the flight. Once again, the senior member corrected me in front of my basics, a little more forceful this time. After about a minute I noticed a few cadets with empty trays but they weren’t making a move to get up and put them away. So, I went over to them and asked if they were finished and if they were then I told them to get their trays to the tray racks. A third time, the senior member corrected me saying “When they’re done then they will take their trays over.” I rather reluctantly yet graciously said yes ma’am, thinking about how the cadet was already done but hadn’t made a move to get up, so how could I trust him to move in the future without some poking and prodding from me? I let the situation alone and then noticed the senior member taking down my name and talking to another senior member, like they were on SET team for cadet staff.

How can we avoid these situations and make senior members realize that encampment is supposed to be a bit hard on basics?

A story from C/CMSgt Ian Underwood:

I had an experience with the Medical Officer the last day of Encampment, I had felt horrible all morning and had almost passed out at one point. So, when I let the Medical Officer know what was wrong, I recieved the reply "You're okay, everybody feels the way you do, just suck it up and deal with it. Later on it was determined I had a temperature of near 104 degrees and had Swine Flu.

A story from C/SMSgt Holly Riley:

I had an experience with a SM Medical Officer on Friday. This was the day after I had broken my arm and I needed more pain meds and was also somewhat dehydrated due to not enough water the previous day and all the drugs pumping through my system. We went to the field for Pass and Review practice after a long morning of activities, and by this point I could barely walk without almost passing out. Our TACO and Flight Commander told me to go to the med van and lay down, along with another sick cadet. However, once we got to the medical van, they refused to let us in and told us we had to go back out in the hot sun because they "didn't want anybody in there."

A story from C/2d Lt Larson:

One night, around 2300 or so, I finished talking to my flight sergeants about problems with the flight, how to deal with certain cadets, what to do about senior members (and mainly just listening to them) and came back inside (we were outside for a little privacy - SMs, CQ, and other staff were pacing the hallways) and ran into Major Wiggs. He asked what I was doing outside with guys, and then proceeded to get very upset with me for "flirting" with "the guys" instead of tending to my duties as first sergeant, saying my behavior was not responsible and unacceptable. I tried to explain to him I was doing my job and had been having a meeting with my flight sergeants, but he insisted I had been "flirting" and told me not to be alone with "the guys" again.

He might have been kidding, if he knew ANYTHING about you, Sierra.
C/Col Feinstein

Just a quick note about jodies: the Fail jody was my personal favorite, but we only got to say it once because it was banned by the seniors. How do we get them to understand that jodies are meant to brag about your own flight and put the other flights down?
C/TSgt Daniel Otto

Major Wiggs wasn't kidding, unfortunately, he was livid. I really got chewed out that night.

And yes, FAIL jody was my favorite too! But it was banned the first time it was heard. I didn't necessarily follow that ban on the bus, but I got into a lot of trouble every time we used FAIL jody, or just about any others for that matter. Even the On the Mountain (a.k.a. at encampment) jody got me in trouble because we were talking about shooting commies in it. ~ C/2d Lt Larson

TACTICAL OFFICERS ARE NOT FLIGHT STAFF AND SHOULD NOT FUNCTION AS SUCH. Flight staff, I feel your pain. We are the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary. How can we uphold and respect among our Marine Corps hosts when our staff are constantly being reprimanded for light disciplinary actions? Cadets should either take the heat from their staff or come back another year. Also, if the jodies have no swearing or sexual references, they should not be censored. Banning of jodies that explicitly involve swear words is expected, but other ones that are simply trash talk are basic staples of encampment.
-C/2d Lt. Huneycutt